Better Plants program leads to carbon reduction, cost savings for US manufacturing [Video]

Newswise — Helping hundreds of manufacturing industries across the United States increase energy efficiency requires a balance of teaching and training, blended with scientific guidance and technical expertise. It’s a formula for success that researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been providing to the Department of Energy’s Better Plants program for more than a decade.

ORNL’s support for the program has led to Better Plants partners achieving a cumulative $11.8 billion in cost savings, 2.4 quadrillion British thermal units of energy savings and 147 million metric tons of carbon dioxide avoided, as highlighted in the most recent progress report released by DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative. The Better Plants program has also helped to improve the average annual energy intensity rate by 1.8%. Energy intensity is a measure of overall inefficiency, calculating the amount of energy an industry uses to produce a product or service.

“Reducing energy intensity is one of the goals of Better Plants and the challenge we’re …